Hidden Gems in a Quote: From Henry David Thoreau I have learned, that if one advances...

"I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours"

The great American poet, author, and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was the writer of the passage above. It's a passage that has been quoted many times by different authors in the personal development field. The message contained in this quote is concentrated and if applied can take us to the highest heights of success and achievement. The words did not come out of a whim, they were carefully chosen. We'll look at this quote and examine the gems contained within which we would otherwise miss in reading it quickly.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams?."

In this passage we can see some important words that we should pay attention to. The first one is "advances". We have to constantly move forward and not stay still. This is speaking against procrastination. Thoreau did not say, "We should constantly think about our dreams." To be successful one has to do more today than they are doing yesterday. A step forward should always be taken. We should not take a break while performing the activity that will bring us success. But how should we advance? He says to advance confidently. You have to be confident that you can reach that goal. Sometimes the only thing that you have to hold on to is your belief that you can reach that goal. There are times when others will not support you and will put you down. This is the way of the world. We are well aware of this, but we should not let it affect us. We have to be strong and confident that we will reach the goal if we persevere.

"..and endeavors to live the life he has imagined?"

Here we have another gem for success. He says that the person who "endeavors to life the life". To endeavor means to make an effort to do something. In other words, you have to act upon the life that you imagine yourself to have. You have to take action upon your dreams. That is the only way that you will be able to achieve it. Taking action is the most critical step that a lot of people fail to take. I have fallen into this trap so many times. We want to wait until everything is perfect and we use that as an excuse to not take action. We say that we want to plan it out. The word plan should be followed by action. A plan without an action is what we should call a wish. So it's not enough to just imagine it, you have to endeavor to live the life, which means you have to take action upon your dreams.

".. will meet with success unexpected in common hours.."

As the person "advances" with "confidence" and "endeavors" to live the life of his/her dreams, they are constantly changing internally. They have changed themselves from the inside and naturally once the internal condition of the person changes it is only a matter of time until this change shows itself in the external. This external change is what people call success and it will show up unexpectedly.

It is amazing how short powerful sentences contain so much in them. Let us spend time with powerful quotes. They have the power to change your life. All of the ingredients for creating success in your life are already inside you. All the tools that you need to chisel yourself to bring out the success ingredients are already available. Continue to advance confidently in the direction of your dreams through taking action and you can't help but attract success to you because you have become the source of success!

Sukhbir Singh is the Founder of LifeApps! Personal Development International. When asked about his main goal he always states: "I want to spend the maximum amount of time to help the maximum amount of people achieve the maximum amount of success in this world!"